We're heading out from Crystal River now.... destination Sarasota. If all goes well, it will take 24hrs.
In the channel now, will be offshore for the duration in about an hour.
Monday, December 18, 2017
From Steinhatchee to Crystal River
Our trip from Steinhatchee to Crystal River was an uneventful overnight - we used one motor all night since the wind was light and right on our nose.
We timed the tides for our the entrance to the Crystal River channel pretty well, although we did see less than a foot of water under the keel at one point!!
The nuclear power plant is right at the waters edge.
Past the power plant, the channel is quite lovely.
We were in Crystal River over 10 years ago - this is where Richard got his SCUBA certification. Strangely, I don't actually remember much about the town. I know that Robert, Duane and myself dove in the freshwater spring, but that's about it.
It is a neat little tourist town - mostly centered around the annual manatee migration during each winter. We took our dinghy for a ride-about and saw many manatees!! I tried to get a photo, but they just aren't very photogenic and they only peek there snout above water for a moment.
Many, many kayaks out looking for manatees also!
We tied up the dinghy at the public park and walked around town a bit. Lovely Spanish moss growing on everything! That's it for the day - probably heading southbound at high tide this afternoon.
And we're finally in shorts and tee shirts again!!
.
We timed the tides for our the entrance to the Crystal River channel pretty well, although we did see less than a foot of water under the keel at one point!!
The nuclear power plant is right at the waters edge.
Past the power plant, the channel is quite lovely.
We were in Crystal River over 10 years ago - this is where Richard got his SCUBA certification. Strangely, I don't actually remember much about the town. I know that Robert, Duane and myself dove in the freshwater spring, but that's about it.
It is a neat little tourist town - mostly centered around the annual manatee migration during each winter. We took our dinghy for a ride-about and saw many manatees!! I tried to get a photo, but they just aren't very photogenic and they only peek there snout above water for a moment.
Many, many kayaks out looking for manatees also!
We tied up the dinghy at the public park and walked around town a bit. Lovely Spanish moss growing on everything! That's it for the day - probably heading southbound at high tide this afternoon.
And we're finally in shorts and tee shirts again!!
.
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Update
We took a little dinghy ride up the Steinhatchee river....lots old derelict boats anchored. Sortof sad and I'm sure it's frustrating for the local folks. This is actually a good anchorage, about 1/2 mile from where we were anchored. We couldn't stay here because there was no room for us.
There are a couple of marinas up the river - this one caters to all the numerous fishing boats - they were stack up everywhere!
We needed to get out of the area before low tide, so we motored out the channel in calm winds. Since we need to be at the Crystal River entrance on the rising tide, we need to wait to actually leave. So, we dropped the anchor about 10 miles offshore - we'll wait about 5 hours before we leave. Just reading and relaxing - not only is there no wind, there are absolutely no waves either! Strange to have such calm water!
We watched the sunset, hoping to see the elusive "green flash"....was beautiful but we didn't see any flash....
There are a couple of marinas up the river - this one caters to all the numerous fishing boats - they were stack up everywhere!
We needed to get out of the area before low tide, so we motored out the channel in calm winds. Since we need to be at the Crystal River entrance on the rising tide, we need to wait to actually leave. So, we dropped the anchor about 10 miles offshore - we'll wait about 5 hours before we leave. Just reading and relaxing - not only is there no wind, there are absolutely no waves either! Strange to have such calm water!
We watched the sunset, hoping to see the elusive "green flash"....was beautiful but we didn't see any flash....
Steinhatchee
Well, the guidebooks were a little off on recommendations for an anchorage in Steinhatchee....
We anchored just off the channel in about 8 feet of water. (Our draft is somewhere close to 4 feet).
Nice little fishing town - lots of small boats out fishing during the day.
But during the night, at low tide, we were sitting on the bottom...and the docks across from us were completely dry!
We'll be off this evening for another overnight - probably heading to Crystal River.
We anchored just off the channel in about 8 feet of water. (Our draft is somewhere close to 4 feet).
Nice little fishing town - lots of small boats out fishing during the day.
But during the night, at low tide, we were sitting on the bottom...and the docks across from us were completely dry!
We'll be off this evening for another overnight - probably heading to Crystal River.
Friday, December 15, 2017
Overnite sail to Steinhatchee - west coast of Florida
We left Apalachicola around noon for the 19 hour trip to the west coast. We picked Steinhatchee just because it looked like a neat town and they have a decent anchorage.
Stopped at the friendly Apalachicola Marina for a top-off of fuel and water. When I went in to pay, there was a "hand" of bananas laying on a table and I commented on them. The nice fellow said "do you want them? They are from the trees outside and we always have too many".
They were neat little sweet bananas, what a nice surprise!
We took the opportunity of unlimited water to hose off the muddy anchor and chain. Then pushed off for the west coast of Florida.
Had another pod of dolphins visit - they seem to love to swim along with us at our bow!
Uneventful cruise overnight to Steinhatchee - same drill - 3 hour shifts seems to work pretty good. The trip was a little less than 100 nautical miles. I had Verizon signal 50 miles offshore, very strange! I read a little, played my "7 Little Words" and Red Herring games on my phone, drank Earl Grey tea and generally stared at the chartplotter/radar. Didn't see a single boat once we left the Intracoastal Waterway at Carabelle, so about 14 hours.
Arrived at the Steinhatchee channel just at sunrise. Narrow channel to what appears to be a neat fishing town. Anchored just off the channel in shallow water. Time for a shower, breakfast and a nap!!
Stopped at the friendly Apalachicola Marina for a top-off of fuel and water. When I went in to pay, there was a "hand" of bananas laying on a table and I commented on them. The nice fellow said "do you want them? They are from the trees outside and we always have too many".
They were neat little sweet bananas, what a nice surprise!
We took the opportunity of unlimited water to hose off the muddy anchor and chain. Then pushed off for the west coast of Florida.
Had another pod of dolphins visit - they seem to love to swim along with us at our bow!
Uneventful cruise overnight to Steinhatchee - same drill - 3 hour shifts seems to work pretty good. The trip was a little less than 100 nautical miles. I had Verizon signal 50 miles offshore, very strange! I read a little, played my "7 Little Words" and Red Herring games on my phone, drank Earl Grey tea and generally stared at the chartplotter/radar. Didn't see a single boat once we left the Intracoastal Waterway at Carabelle, so about 14 hours.
Arrived at the Steinhatchee channel just at sunrise. Narrow channel to what appears to be a neat fishing town. Anchored just off the channel in shallow water. Time for a shower, breakfast and a nap!!
Thursday, December 14, 2017
Apalachicola
We stayed in the Apalachicola another night waiting on a good weather window to scoot across to the west coast of Florida.
We took the dinghy ashore to stretch our legs and explore.
It's weird not having a mailbox....I had a couple of items I needed to mail so we found the Post Office. It's a wonderful old building right in the middle of the quaint downtown. It has that wonderful smell that only old government buildings seem to have.
Neat downtown area - I bet it's "hoppin" on a summer day!
We wandered past this old graveyard and went in for a look thru an open gate - I was amazed at the faded headstones - some were from the early 1800's and really hard to read. There didn't seem to be any "modern" headstones at all. Some were just stones and the markings were all worn away.
We exited the cemetery on another street and found this sign after we'd walked thru wondering about the history. Cool.
Back to the boat - we're planning to head further east tonight. Tentative plans are to pull the anchor around noon and head out for a 16 hr overnight sail over to the west coast of Florida.
We took the dinghy ashore to stretch our legs and explore.
It's weird not having a mailbox....I had a couple of items I needed to mail so we found the Post Office. It's a wonderful old building right in the middle of the quaint downtown. It has that wonderful smell that only old government buildings seem to have.
Neat downtown area - I bet it's "hoppin" on a summer day!
We wandered past this old graveyard and went in for a look thru an open gate - I was amazed at the faded headstones - some were from the early 1800's and really hard to read. There didn't seem to be any "modern" headstones at all. Some were just stones and the markings were all worn away.
We exited the cemetery on another street and found this sign after we'd walked thru wondering about the history. Cool.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
From Port St. Joe to Apalachicola
After a very "lumpy" night at anchor, we headed up a protected canal to join the Intracoastal Waterway for a few hours to move over to Apalachicola. Going east in small increments!
A few odd sights on the canal - this appeared to be a sort of "junkyard"....
Neat little "oxbows" off the main channel. Lots of floating debris so we had to be careful.
Occasionally we saw little floating houses tucked back off the main waterway. Never saw anyone - I assume they're for fishing??
Cool railroad bridge - it was open so we just passed thru.
Anchored just off the little town of Apalachicola near a marshy area.
Went to the Owl Cafe for "happy hour". I had a great local beer - Oyster City First Light of the Day - sortof like Blue Moon. Very good. I had to try the "Duck Fries" - they were absolutely divine but definitely a diet-buster. Basically fries with white gravy, cheese and slivers of duck. Oh, plus a dozen raw oysters. Yeah, I don't need to eat for a month now.....back to the boat via dinghy for a very calm night.
A few odd sights on the canal - this appeared to be a sort of "junkyard"....
Neat little "oxbows" off the main channel. Lots of floating debris so we had to be careful.
Occasionally we saw little floating houses tucked back off the main waterway. Never saw anyone - I assume they're for fishing??
Cool railroad bridge - it was open so we just passed thru.
Anchored just off the little town of Apalachicola near a marshy area.
Went to the Owl Cafe for "happy hour". I had a great local beer - Oyster City First Light of the Day - sortof like Blue Moon. Very good. I had to try the "Duck Fries" - they were absolutely divine but definitely a diet-buster. Basically fries with white gravy, cheese and slivers of duck. Oh, plus a dozen raw oysters. Yeah, I don't need to eat for a month now.....back to the boat via dinghy for a very calm night.
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Port St. Joe
We went straight to the Port St. Joe marina to top off our water and fuel tanks. Only used 14 gallons of fuel the whole week! Very nice protected marina.
Helpful and friendly dockhands.
We took our handy little fold-up cart and walked about 1/2 mile to the Piggly Wiggly to get some fresh produce and a few other items.
A "brief" of pelicans on the breakwater. (I looked up the name for a group of pelicans!)
Sojourn anchored in the bay near the marina.....we're not paying dock fees when we can avoid it.
Our view at sunset looking back towards the marina.
Helpful and friendly dockhands.
We took our handy little fold-up cart and walked about 1/2 mile to the Piggly Wiggly to get some fresh produce and a few other items.
A "brief" of pelicans on the breakwater. (I looked up the name for a group of pelicans!)
Sojourn anchored in the bay near the marina.....we're not paying dock fees when we can avoid it.
Our view at sunset looking back towards the marina.
Monday, December 11, 2017
Fizz Giz - Soda Stream Alternative
Most of you know that we quit drinking all sodas (except seltzer water) several years ago. At home, we keep 12 packs of seltzer water on hand and drink it frequently.
On the boat, keeping stores of cans of water is just not feasible. The alternative is to make our own fizzy water!
You may have seen commercials for the "Soda Stream"....the problem with it is that you have to use their very expensive special CO2 cartridges. An alternative is something called a Fizz Giz. It's sold by a guy in Greensboro on Amazon. We got one and it is a bit of a bother to get it set up...but once you've got it set up, the CO2 only costs $4 to fill the large bottle at the sporting goods store. It's about twice as big as the custom Soda Stream bottle.
Fizzy water for a few pennies a bottle.
The seller offered to send some free extra caps to anyone who would post a Youtube video about his product.
You all also probably know that I thought his offer was a good deal.....so here's my silly video!
On the boat, keeping stores of cans of water is just not feasible. The alternative is to make our own fizzy water!
You may have seen commercials for the "Soda Stream"....the problem with it is that you have to use their very expensive special CO2 cartridges. An alternative is something called a Fizz Giz. It's sold by a guy in Greensboro on Amazon. We got one and it is a bit of a bother to get it set up...but once you've got it set up, the CO2 only costs $4 to fill the large bottle at the sporting goods store. It's about twice as big as the custom Soda Stream bottle.
Fizzy water for a few pennies a bottle.
The seller offered to send some free extra caps to anyone who would post a Youtube video about his product.
You all also probably know that I thought his offer was a good deal.....so here's my silly video!
Safe arrival Port St. Joe
After a lovely overnight sail offshore in 10-20 knot winds, we arrived safely at Port St. Joe around 8:30AM.
Wonderful to watch the slow sunrise heading east.....around 5AM
The sun peeps over the horizon at about 6:20AM.... more later.
Wonderful to watch the slow sunrise heading east.....around 5AM
The sun peeps over the horizon at about 6:20AM.... more later.
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Off to Port St. Joe this morning
We woke to beautiful blue skies and 33 degrees.....brrrrr.
Overnite, another boat had joined us in our snug little anchorage.
The weather has finally given us a little "window" to head out in pretty benign conditions. Plans are for us to lift anchor before noon today and head offshore to Port St. Joe. It will be an overnite sail and we don't want to get there after dark if we can avoid it. See ya later!
Overnite, another boat had joined us in our snug little anchorage.
The weather has finally given us a little "window" to head out in pretty benign conditions. Plans are for us to lift anchor before noon today and head offshore to Port St. Joe. It will be an overnite sail and we don't want to get there after dark if we can avoid it. See ya later!
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Making water
We've been at anchor for 6 days now and have used 75 of our 100 gallons of water. That's 12.5 gallons per day - and includes flushing toilets, cooking, washing dishes and 2 showers each so far. Pretty good conservation, I think! Wonder how much each of us uses on land per day?
So, we cranked up the reverse osmosis watermaker for the first time. We were afraid that the previous owner hadn't set it up for storage properly. The equipment must be flushed and treated if it's not going to be used for a long period of time.
But it worked perfectly! Duane tested the output water for salinity - and it was pure. I took the first taste....it tasted like....nothing. So, he turned a valve and started sending the pure water into the storage tank.
We made about 20 gallons of water - took about 1 hour running the generator. It requires a lot of 110v power so can't be run off the solar panels/battery.
Now that we know it works, we can run it any time we're low on water. We are really off-the-grid self-sufficient with this boat!
So, we cranked up the reverse osmosis watermaker for the first time. We were afraid that the previous owner hadn't set it up for storage properly. The equipment must be flushed and treated if it's not going to be used for a long period of time.
But it worked perfectly! Duane tested the output water for salinity - and it was pure. I took the first taste....it tasted like....nothing. So, he turned a valve and started sending the pure water into the storage tank.
We made about 20 gallons of water - took about 1 hour running the generator. It requires a lot of 110v power so can't be run off the solar panels/battery.
Now that we know it works, we can run it any time we're low on water. We are really off-the-grid self-sufficient with this boat!
Friday, December 8, 2017
Still anchored Pensacola
We're just relaxing at anchor in Pensacola waiting on this crazy cold/rainy weather to pass.
The winds have been pretty high! We saw over 35 knots....but the anchor is really "stuck" and has been holding us in place for days now.
Doing lots of reading all bundled up. We run the generator every few hours to warm things up and get rid of some of the condensation. So, we're fairly comfy.
View this morning from the back of the boat....the "warm" water is steaming in the 39 degree air temp!
The winds have been pretty high! We saw over 35 knots....but the anchor is really "stuck" and has been holding us in place for days now.
Doing lots of reading all bundled up. We run the generator every few hours to warm things up and get rid of some of the condensation. So, we're fairly comfy.
View this morning from the back of the boat....the "warm" water is steaming in the 39 degree air temp!
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Moved closer to the Pensacola channel
We decided to leave our little bayou and get a few hours closer to our "shove off" point. So, we motored about 10 miles down the Intracoastal Waterway - met a couple of big barges on the way.
Shortly after we left the Alabama bayou area, the waterway started to look a little more "populated".
And we officially made it to Florida!!
Our anchorage for the next several day will be near Ft. McCree. It's just a little cut that is made between the barrier island (Perdido Key) and a man-made "spoils" area that is essentially a huge pile of sand the Army Corps of Engineers placed there to get rid of the sand from dredging. Perfect little cove though!
Dropped the anchor and took advantage of the still-75 degree weather to tour the remains of Fort McCree.
Beached the dinghy.
Wandered around the little island...sort of pitiful for a National Park Service area - completely overgrown and left to the elements. The fort was used during the civil war and then occasionally thru the years up to the late 1940's.
I believe these probably were gun turrets, but no markings to tell me.
Remains of some buildings.
Lovely views though!
We wandered around on the dunes - this is apparently a popular weekend spot and there appear to be no restrictions about wandering around like you see at the NC beaches. (Sojourn is in the middle of the anchorage in this photo)
Walked all the way over to the actual Gulf beach - not a lot of shells, but found several little sand-dollars!
Back to the boat, beautiful but chilly water.
Shortly after we left the Alabama bayou area, the waterway started to look a little more "populated".
And we officially made it to Florida!!
Our anchorage for the next several day will be near Ft. McCree. It's just a little cut that is made between the barrier island (Perdido Key) and a man-made "spoils" area that is essentially a huge pile of sand the Army Corps of Engineers placed there to get rid of the sand from dredging. Perfect little cove though!
Dropped the anchor and took advantage of the still-75 degree weather to tour the remains of Fort McCree.
Beached the dinghy.
Wandered around the little island...sort of pitiful for a National Park Service area - completely overgrown and left to the elements. The fort was used during the civil war and then occasionally thru the years up to the late 1940's.
I believe these probably were gun turrets, but no markings to tell me.
Lovely views though!
We wandered around on the dunes - this is apparently a popular weekend spot and there appear to be no restrictions about wandering around like you see at the NC beaches. (Sojourn is in the middle of the anchorage in this photo)
Walked all the way over to the actual Gulf beach - not a lot of shells, but found several little sand-dollars!
Back to the boat, beautiful but chilly water.
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